Family stories and research stories that tell the tale of my personal research. If you have a similar family line or want to know more. Please contact me!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Jack & Jinxy

I’ll never forget that day back in the summer of 1985 when
we were helping my Uncle Jack & Aunt Hilda move from Santa Rosa, CA to
Roseburg, OR. Mom came in the room with
an odd look on her face and plastic recipe file box in hand. It looked a little beat up and had tape
around the top to seal it. Evidently, it
was the cremated remains of Jack’s cat Jinxy!

Jack & Hilda

Uncle Jack loved cats especially black ones. I can remember every time he visited us that
he would tease me that he might have to take that fine black kitty we had back
home with him. I would tell him that she
wouldn’t go with him because she loved me.
When Jack got back home he sent me a picture of his black kitty sleeping
in some gold garland and told me that his old Tom looked lonesome. Seven years later, Jack was probably without
a cat for the first time in decades and he and Hilda were moving. My parents, brother and I went down to help
them pack up for the move. Mom said that
Jack came back in the room and asked her if she remembered Jinxy. Jinxy was a cat that Jack had had some 25
years before when he lived in Colorado.
Jinxy had died and Jack was getting ready to move and he couldn’t bear
to leave his beloved cat behind. So,
Jack had Jinxy cremated and kept him a plastic recipe box that he declared was
hermetically sealed with tape. He was
very serious when he asked my mother if she thought that he should take Jinxy
to their next home. Mom looked at him
and could see that this meant a lot to him and told him that he had had Jinxy
this long, so why not take him with them.
She did point out that Jack should get a better box for him though.

When Mom came into the room after that little talk with
Uncle Jack…she told us what he had said.
My Dad said that it was probably just some dirt and gravel and that he
was probably pulling our leg. Mom said
no…he was quite serious. Hilda was no
help…she told Dad to open it up and look if he wasn’t sure.

We began the convoy up north – my brother and I driving
Jack’s extra cars – and headed north to Roseburg, OR. Along the way, my brother found a lovely
little myrtle wood box for his wife.
When he was showing us all the box – Jack began eying the box and told
him that it would make a fine coffin for Jinxy…my brother quickly put the box
away because we weren’t real sure whether Jack was joking or not.

Jack didn’t live very long in Roseburg, OR. One day, 2 years later, he was working in
his wood shop and died of a heart attack.
Hilda, while broken hearted, still had her sense of humor and wrote Jack
– AWOL on the day that he died. Jack had
a simple wish. He wanted to be cremated
and taken up to Grouse Flats on the old home place and have his and Jinxy’s
ashes scattered. His brother, Claude,
told me that it really wasn’t quite fair to Jinxy as he was a city cat and he
was up there with all of those country cats.

My cat - Jinxy

Several years ago when I got a new kitten the only name that
immediately came to mind for her was Jinxy – so in memory of Uncle Jack and his
love for black kitties…she is my Jinxy!